Staple Face

Here's 'Staple Face', one of the pieces from mine & Sharon Griffin's ongoing collaboration project, Unlockdown. The creative process in this project begins by one of us starting a piece off (we usually start with clay, but not always), before we hand it over to the other for them to add their touch, before it is handed back again. And so it goes until the piece is deemed to be complete.

 

'Staple Face', 2021, ceramic & metal, by Wayne Chisnall & Sharon Griffin

Compared to other 'Unlockdown' pieces, 'Staple Face' required quite minimal intervention on my part. I pressed slabs of clay into a mould that Sharon had made of one of her bust figures, and when I removed it from the mould I was fascinated by the creases that occurred where the slabs of rolled clay had joined. To me they looked like beautiful scars, and thinking on one of my favourite black and white horror movie characters, Frankenstein's Monster (played by Boris Karloff - who I later found out was born just round the corner from where I lived, in Forest Hill, when I first moved London), I decided to hand-make rusty metal staples to join the 'scars' together. Sharon handled the lovely glazing (made to her own recipe, from locally sourced Telford minerals) and the firing.

'Staple Face', 2021, ceramic & metal, by Wayne Chisnall & Sharon Griffin

'Staple face' is the second piece that I've worked on, where I've incorporated hand-made metal staples. The first one was my 'Frankenstein's Log' sculpture; one of my solo artworks, and not part of the 'Unlockdown' project.

 

'Frankenstein's Log', 2020, sculpture by artist, Wayne Chisnall

As I'd previously mentioned, Sharon, and I have been selected to exhibit some of our work from 'Unlockdown' at COLLECT. However, I don't think that Staple Face will be on of the pieces that Sharon & I will be showing at the art fair. COLLECT makers fair will take place at Somerset House in London, in February 2022. This highly acclaimed Crafts Council event showcases the best of British and international high-end crafts, and Sharon and I are both very excited to be selected to take part.

 

Sharon and I would like to say a massive thank you to the wonderful creative team at Kensa, who have so beautifully photographed the sculptures that we will be exhibiting at COLLECT. Kensa is a creative marketing agency based here in Telford, Shropshire.

 

Over the next few months, Sharon and I will be revealing more of what we've been working on and sharing our ideas, inspirations and processes.

Craft Council's 'COLLECT' Art Fair 2022

After 18 months of keeping it secret I'm now delighted to announce that I, along with my collaborator, Sharon Griffin, will be exhibit sculptures from our ongoing 'Unlockdown' project at COLLECT, which will take place at Somerset House in London, in February 2022. This highly acclaimed Crafts Council event (the biggest makers fair in Europe) showcases the best of British and international high-end crafts, and Sharon and I are both very excited to be selected to take part.

 

Courtyard at Somerset House, London, UK, photo by Kevin Meredith

Over the next few months, Sharon and I will be revealing more of what we've been working on and sharing our ideas, inspirations and processes. If we're brave enough maybe we'll even share some of our thoughts about what we've discovered about ourselves along the way. Making art can be very revealing about one's own psyche, and can draw on early memories and sometimes traumas too (heavy!).

 

artist, Wayne Chisnall, working in pottery studio, Wellington, Shropshire, 2021

In this photo I'm working on a piece that would become 'Nail Head' - one of my favourite pieces, so far, from mine and Sharon's collaboration.

Digital Doodles

I've recently been messing around with this wonky old Wacom drawing tablet that I've had knocking around my studio for years. I originally found it after it had been chucked it out by another artist during one of my previous studio moves in London. As was quite common back then (and probably still is now, although there now seem to be less and less artists' studio spaces available in the capital), a whole building full of artists would be given short notice to move out and find studio space elsewhere, and in the rush to move, piles of unwanted art materials, books and curios would be abandoned outside studio doors - far too tempting to a hoarder like me!

Untitled digital skull doodle, 2021, by artist, Wayne Chisnall

Anyway - back to this temperamental drawing tablet. There's a bit of a time delay between the movement of the pen and what appears on the screen, and sometimes, when I've lifted the pen from the pad it will still carry on making marks on the screen. 

Untitled digital skull doodle, 2021, by artist, Wayne Chisnall

But I'm quite enjoying this malfunction - it's like having to wrestle with the line whilst you're drawing - forcing you to counter each unexpected mark with a split second corrective one. I've also found that if I hold the pen a certain way (at the furthest point from the nib), it amplifies the malfunction - making the drawing process a little less easy to control, but hopefully producing more interesting/random-looking line work.

Untitled digital skull doodle, 2021, by artist, Wayne Chisnall

Digital art isn't something that I'm that familiar with, which I probably why I'm having so much fun discovering what I can do with it - to the extent that I'll sometimes find myself doodling away on it till about 6:30 in the morning.

 

Untitled digital skull doodle, 2021, by artist, Wayne Chisnall

Part of me hopes that I don't learn to many digital skills as I like seeing what can be achieved with limited knowledge of a medium.

Mini Painting Challenge - Continued Update

I've just realised that, so far, I've only posted images of the first half of the 100 or so paintings that I made during the mini painting challenge that I set myself near the start of last year. So here's a few more from the second half of that series. I'll post more at later dates, so as not to overwhelm with a glut of images all in one post.

"Scrotal Teapot'', 2020, oil on book cover by UK artist, Wayne Chisnall

In mid-January of 2020 I came up with the idea of setting myself the ridiculously ambitious challenge of trying to paint 1000 small oil paintings in a 12 month time span. My initial thoughts behind the project were that I'd knock out a load of quick oil sketches as a way or generating a few new ideas and trying out different painting techniques. Although the majority of the paintings didn't turn out to be quite as quick or sketchy as I'd initially intended, I was, for the first few weeks, still on schedule for my target. 

"Bride Of Frankenstein'', 2020, oil on board by UK artist, Wayne Chisnall

However, I soon realised how all-consuming a twelve month painting challenge of this scale would be, and that putting that amount of pressure on myself would take a lot of the fun out of painting. Also, it wouldn't allow me any free time for working on my sculptural projects, and I've always found that taking a break from one medium and switching to another for a while keeps me motivated and helps generate new ideas. 

"Saintly Long Dog'', 2020, oil on board by UK artist, Wayne Chisnall

Apart from two or three, all of the paintings in this 2020 series are painted directly to the painting's surface with brush and oil paint, rather than being pencilled in beforehand. I really like the immediacy of this approach. You can often end up with a piece that has a vibrancy that you might not have got if you were being more considered and calculated.

"Sullen Ted'', 2020, oil on board by UK artist, Wayne Chisnall

The mini oil paintings/oil sketches that I've produced so far are mostly painted on small, wall mountable, plywood or chipboard plaques (recycled form pieces of  Victoria and Albert Museum packing crates), or on old book covers and recycled pieces of primed mount board (recycled from the V&A museum's Paper Conservation Department and from their Picture Framing Dept.).